Golden State Warrior’s James Wiseman Top Talk of the Town Analysis Show
US National Basketball Association (NBA) rookies have been tearing the League up this year with their dazzling performance in the court. Blueprint.ph’s monthly sentiment analysis scan show Filipino NBA Fans have been following these NBA rookies on Facebook. We ranked them based on how local NBA fans have been following and reacting to the different news and posts for the month of February 2021.
Top talk of the town is James Wiseman of the Golden State Warriors who earned 284K this month with much of the top conversations were about his wrist injury. Fans actively engaged with well wishes and sad reactions. Number of Posts for James Wiseman reached 177 with 8.9K comments, 8K shares, and 286K reactions.
Top post for Wiseman was from Golden State’s Top Influencer for the month and official FB Page, a photo of Wiseman with a caption…
“James Wiseman suffered a sprained left wrist in Saturday night’s win over Detroit. He will be re-evaluated in 7-10 days.
James is averaging 12.2 points (third-most among rookies) through 20 games and leads all rookies in rebounds (6.1) and blocks (1.30) per game.”
The post got a total 505 shares and 185K talking about counts, 2.4K engagement scores with 18.6K reactions.
He is is finally back after missing 11 games with a wrist injury. Wiseman’s return to the game is considered crucial for the team because his presence alone on the floor has an impact on games.
LaMelo Ball of the Charlotte Hornets, named as the Eastern Conference Rookie of The Month for February and the runaway candidate for Rookie of the Year with Wiseman out of the court, is at second place. Ball has been putting up over 20 points per game in the month of February.
Posts for Ball who was the most talked about rookie during the first half of February, reached a total 336 (almost twice the count for Wiseman) getting a total of 283K data points with 239K reactions.
Michael Jordan himself has stated that LaMelo has exceeded expectations in his rookie year and has turned the Hornets into one of the most exciting teams in the NBA. Only time will tell if he is to reunite with his brother Lonzo Ball, currently a New Orleans Pelican guard, and have a Chino Hills 2016 reunion.
At third place of the rising stars is Minnesota Timberwolves rookie Anthony Edwards who had a total of 181 posts and 203K data points.
He has put up multiple strong scoring performances and is luckily on a tanking team, hence he is given all the time to develop. Regarded as a generational talent, Anthony Edwards looks to overcome the “bust” labeled towards the last 1st overall draft pick of the Timberwolves Andrew Wiggins.
At fourth is Immanuel Quickley of the New York Knicks. The Knicks have been desperately looking for a strong frontcourt with current point guards Elfrid Payton and Frank Ntlikina not being able to stand the pressure of playing in Madison Square Garden. However, Quickley has taken this challenge well and has put up multiple insane performances, and dazzled the audience with his signature sure-ball floater and unlimited range. He is able to offload some of the scoring weight from RJ Barrett and the first-time all-star Julius Randle who has been playing out of his mind.
Tyrese Haliburton of the Sacramento Kings sits at 5th, and has proven his critics wrong. His 3-point shot has translated well into the league and is looking to be a very promising prospect for the Kings who are playing for a playoff push. Especially with Buddy Hield struggling heavily, The Kings look to Haliburton for a spark plug to enlighten up the team.
Obi Toppin of the New York Knicks is at 6th. Toppin, the top scorer in the NCAA last season and is regarded highly, dropped to the 8th pick and is struggling to adjust so far unlike his peers. He is put in a tough situation due to his position being occupied by Julius Randle who has been carrying the New York Knicks. It seems like a Kevin Knox situation, where the Knicks have been the obstacle once again to their own success. They need to give him more minutes because Obi has proven his explosiveness in the court with his dashing dunks and Stretch Four shooting.
At 7th is Josh Green of the Dallas Mavericks. The Dallas Mavericks are in a weird spot right now with every game being won depending if Luka Doncic performs for the team or not. Obscure players such as Josh Green or James Johnson turn into absolute ballers when playing with Luka Doncic. Luka simply makes the right play every time as much as possible and gets his teammates involved.
At 8th place is Patrick WIlliams of the Chicago Bulls, who was picked 4th Overall. He is regarded as a project pickup for and is looking to be another hybrid type player who is willing to play multiple positions. He has range and has multiple high-scoring games. He has started multiple games for the Bulls and it is a good thing that he is given the minutes because he never started games in college despite being one of their best players. Some regard certain players such as Lou Williams to be better coming off the bench, but the Bulls hope to turn this man into an All-Star.
Nico Mannion of the Golden State Warriors is at 9th place. Picked 55th Overall, he has looked like a star in High School and is regarded by many analysts as a potential draft steal; perhaps overlooked by others due to his looks. The Warriors who are pushing for a playoff spot look to get a decent backup for Steph Curry, with their developmental players such as Jordan Poole sent to the G-League to further hone their game.
Finally at 10th is Payton Pritchard of the Boston Celtics. The Celtics Rookie is looking like a true draft steal for the Boston Celtics, who are way down the pecking order due to them being deep in the playoffs. He has provided a spark plug when starting point guard Kemba Walker was unavailable to play due to knee issues. A 4-year Oregon commit, Pritchard is known as a no-nonsense hard worker, and look like improving his game every day. A high-level scorer capable of deep threes and playmaking, Pritchard will be a vital piece for the Celtics in the future.
Blueprint scanned a total of 1M data points for the month of February for the top NBA Rookies.